1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to push printing from a merchant or other remote internet source to a home printer connected to a set top box over a digital cable network. More specifically, the invention relates to initiation of a print job from the remote internet source directly to the printer connected to the set top box, ordinarily without intervention from the user of the set top box.
2. Description of the Related Art
With increasing availability of cable television networks that also provide digital data to a home subscriber, a new product is becoming increasingly common in homes: a set top box which provides access not only to conventional cable television, but also provides access to internet-based digital data. Examples of existing set top boxes include those manufactured by Scientific Atlanta under the tradename xe2x80x9cExplorer 2000xe2x80x9d, General Instrument under the tradename xe2x80x9cDCT 5000+xe2x80x9d, and Motorola, under the tradename xe2x80x9cStreamMasterxe2x80x9d. Set top boxes are home-based, and are connected to a cable provider (often referred to as the xe2x80x9ccable head endxe2x80x9d) over a high speed digital cable network. Set top boxes provide efficient delivery of cable television broadcasts from the cable head end. In addition, through an internet connection at the cable head end, set top boxes also provide the ability for a home user to access the internet through web browser software included in the set top box.
In a related development, sophisticated printers such as bubble jet printers, designed specifically for home use, have become increasingly affordable, and have enjoyed widespread acceptance. It has therefore been considered to provide a connection between a set top box and a printer, thereby to allow a home user of a set top box to initiate printout of documents directly on his printer without the need for a separate computer.
In an unrelated development in the field of printing, the subject of distributed printing has recently attracted attention. Conventional paradigms of printing allow for printout to a printer connected to the same computer or network as the source of the print job. According to distributed printing, the source of the print job need not be connected to the same network, or be at the same location as, the destination printer. An Internet Printing Protocol has been proposed that allows for distributed printing over the internet, that is, from an internet-based source to an internet-based destination. The following documents describe the Internet Printing Protocol, and are incorporated herein by reference: RFC 2568, xe2x80x9cRationale for the Structure of the Model and Protocol for the Internet Printing Protocolxe2x80x9d, April 1999; RFC 2567, xe2x80x9cDesign Goals for an Internet Printing Protocolxe2x80x9d, April, 1999; RFC 2566, xe2x80x9cInternet Printing Protocol/1.0: Model and Semanticsxe2x80x9d, April 1999; RFC 2565, xe2x80x9cInternet Printing Protocol/1.0: Encoding and Transportxe2x80x9d, April 1999; and RFC 2569, xe2x80x9cMapping between LPD ad IPP Protocolsxe2x80x9d, April 1999.
Distributed printing has not yet been considered in the field of set top boxes, primarily because the set top box (and any attached printer) is not actually connected to the internet. Rather, it is the cable head end that is connected to the internet; thus, distributed printing techniques like the Internet Printing Protocol are not able to address print jobs from an internet-based source to the set top box.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing difficulties, by providing for push printing from an internet source to a home printer connected to a set top box, printing being through a cable head end and over a digital cable network by which the set top box and the cable head end are connected to each other. Push printing according to the invention may be one-to-one, one-to-many, one-to-all, or one-to-group. In this latter aspect of the invention involving one-to-group push printing, a preferences directory at the cable head end may be provided so as to manage the group.
Thus, according to this aspect, the invention is printing from an internet-based source to a set top box through a cable head end to which the set top box communicates over a digital cable network. The cable head end has access to the internet, through which print jobs can be received. The print job with its printed content is submitted from a remote internet site, received by the cable head end over the internet, and transmitted via the digital cable network to a home set top box to which the printer is connected.
The invention preferably supports one-to-many printing in a multicast configuration, through the use of a preferences directory stored at the cable head end, with the preferences directory including a list of set top boxes to which print jobs may be addressed. The preferences directory may also define groups, so as to support one-to-group printing. Upon receipt of a multicast print job from an upstream remote merchant over the internet, the cable head end accesses the user preferences directory so as to determine which users should receive the multicast print job. If desired, a multicast protocol may be utilized so as to send the print job to selected set top boxes for printout thereby.
In a related aspect of the invention involving notification, a notification protocol allows notification of an upstream internet site that a printing job for a downstream internet site has been successfully completed. Thus, an internet site at which a push print job has originated may be notified using such a notification protocol that the print job has successfully completed, through notification protocols that are transmitted upstream from the set top box to the cable head end, and from the cable head end over the internet to the originating site.
According to this aspect of the invention, in conjunction with receipt of a print job by the set top box, the set top box builds a notification protocol including client at the set top box so as to transmit confirmation of the print job back to the cable head end. Correspondingly, the cable head end builds a notification server protocol, which communicates to the client protocol built by the set top box, so as to obtain confirmation of the print job status and so as to transmit the print notification back to the next-upstream internet site, if such is desired.
This brief summary has been provided so that the nature of the invention may be understood quickly. A more complete understanding of the invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment thereof in connection with the attached drawings.